Young House Love

Home Decorating, DIY Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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The Best Christmas Trees, Lights, & Holiday Decorations

Over the last 17 years, we’ve decorated a whole bunch of houses for the holidays and it means that we have favorite methods and items when it comes to decking the halls. And why is finding the best Christmas tree lights so hard?! The point is, we’ve tried a ton of holiday decorations, and this post is your one-stop shop for photos, ideas, info, and links to our favorite things – from the faux Christmas trees that we like best to our go-to outdoor lights (if you ask John’s special eyes, there is definitely a correct temperature). In this post we’ll cover all of our favorite: Wherever possible, we’ve linked to the actual items we’ve

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2023 Holiday Gift Guides – With Ideas As Low As $3!

Just like for our 2022 Gift Guides and 2021 Gift Guides, we’ve put all three of our gift lists in one place (this post right here). So, without further ado… let’s dive into the 3 categories that we cover every year: We have fun making these each year, and always include things we actually own & love as well as items that we’re actually buying for others in our family (from our own kids to each other – and for relatives and friends). It’s probably helpful to point out that nothing was sponsored/gifted in order to get into this guide. If something is on these lists, we just genuinely love it (and in many cases,

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How We Organized Our Closets: Tips & A Video Tour

It feels like a miracle, but we’ve gone from absolutely zero closet space in our bedroom (when we moved in we just had dressers) to having just as much space as our last house’s big walk-in closet! We’ve previously covered how we installed Ikea Pax wardrobes and how we made them look built-in, so today we’re throwing open every door & drawer to show you how we’ve organized them. If you’re looking for tips to maximize your storage & specific products that can make it feel more customized, this is the post for you. It should be said upfront that neither of us have what we’d call a large amount of clothing (although I’ve always

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6 Layout Features We Love In Our Smaller Home (And 1 You Might Not)

Since downsizing to our 1400 square foot house three and a half years ago (as a refresher, our previous house was more than twice as large – clocking in at 3150 square feet), you’ve probably heard us proclaim that smart storage is key. It certainly makes living in a smaller home a lot more sustainable and enjoyable, but there are also specific layout features of our house that make sharing less square footage go a lot more smoothly for us. So whether you’re thinking of downsizing, considering a new home with any of these layout details, building a new home, or are just curious about what some of our favorite “living-larger-in-a-smaller-home” features are, we’ve put

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Our Favorite Family Board Games

Our family loves playing board games and we often share them on Instagram stories. And over the years, we’ve gotten requests to do a post of our favorites with a quick rundown of each one (like the cliff notes version of each game). We currently have about 30 in our game cabinet, covering a pretty wide variety: card games, party games, dice games, puzzle games, and more. We love games that are as fun for grown-ups as they are for kids (ours are 13 and 9), so with the exception of a couple of adults-only versions that we’ve clearly labeled, everything linked in this post is great for the whole family. I’ve categorized our games

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Two Days In St. Petersburg Florida With Kids

Rather than take one big vacation this summer, we opted instead for a few short trips so we could experience more new places. We kicked things off with a 3-night trip to Charleston, SC, we met up my parents in the Georgia mountains in July, and then capped off the summer with a getaway to St. Petersburg, Florida. Sherry and I had only been there very briefly during this 2008 beach vacation, so we were excited to spend more time there and explore it with our kids. So here’s a quick recap of what we did, where we ate, and why we’re excited to go back. Where Did We Stay In St. Petersburg? St. Petersburg

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#183: What’s Next, House Vibes, & Yet Another Embarrassing Moment

We’re dropping this random pop-in episode to share one of the most embarrassing tales Sherry has ever told on this podcast. Of course it had to happen in the nicest house we’ve ever been in (in front of one of Sherry’s personal heroes). We’re also listing what’s left on our to-do list, and answering the much-asked question: what’s your next big project? Plus, we break down what feels different to us about this house compared to our last one (and the varied impressions you might get about us if you walked in without us being there). Lastly, we each share some recent home-related purchases and the books & tv shows that are keeping us laughing

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Finally! Real Walkways & A Legitimate Parking Spot For Two

As we mentioned in our post about making a bigger backyard pool area, we’ve also made some big changes out front. Namely, we now have a legit front walkway and driveway! Break out the champagne! Release the doves! Rewatch the #Scandoval episode of Vanderpump Rules (or whatever else people like Sherry do to celebrate). I know this may seem unworthy of celebration – a driveway? cool story, bro – but when you live without one for THREE YEARS, it feels like a major win. Why We Needed Parking & Pathways I know most houses come with a place to park your car and some sort of path to the front door. Every other house we’ve

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How We Doubled The Size (And Function!) Of Our Backyard Pool Area

For nearly a year, we’ve been in the process of reimagining our pool area as a bigger, more multi-functional space. You first saw it two years ago when we posted this behind-the-scenes of putting in a pool, along with lots of before & afters. We LOVE our pool and this area quickly became our go-to outdoor family hang-out spot. So back in Spring of 2022, we realized we could make it work even harder for us if we did one somewhat simple thing… moved one section of fencing back (thereby doubling the size!). It ended up being a bit more than just that, so I’ll take you through the various steps we took to maximize

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A Weekend In Charleston, SC With Kids

Last week our family took a last-minute, 2-day-3-night trip to Charleston, South Carolina and it was *chef’s kiss*. It was our first time there, and we arrived having done zero planning and no itinerary with the goal of exploring, enjoying the sights, and eating some good stuff along the way (spoiler: we achieved all three!). Honestly, it might have been our favorite weekend trip yet (tied with New Orleans). So here are all the places, activities, and meals that made our trip so great. Why We Picked Charleston As A Spot To Visit? Ever since we moved to Florida three years ago, our family vacations have changed a bit. We used to almost always pick

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Best Summer Reading Spot Bracket – Free Kids Printables

With our kids’ summer break kicking off this weekend, we came up with a fun twist on our usual summer reading goals. We had the idea while playing “would you rather” on a family walk this morning, came home and whipped up a paper template, and an hour later Sherry mentioned it in passing on Instagram. Then Sherry’s DMs filled up with people asking her to share a copy of the bracket or tell them where we got it (we whipped it up in Photoshop), so we decided to drop two free printable options of it here in this post. I even had some fun myself, as a 41-year-old man, making this filled-out sample above

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Using Ikea Floating Shelves To Make Sense Of A Weird Corner In Our Bedroom

For over a decade, one of our renovating mantras has been “the middle makes no sense.” Basically, don’t fret if your house is mid-reno, not fully furnished, or otherwise in limbo. Take your time, try something out, and just course correct as you go. See what you like and what you use. Live with something for a little while (or a long while). Take the expectation of having a finished perfect house right away and throw it in the trash (it always takes us years to get to that point!). Just keep letting spaces evolve in ways that work for your family and make you happy. And eventually, you’re very likely to end up with

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